How Much of Your Gas is Taxes?

I was stunned when I learned how much, per gallon, you can actually be paying toward taxes, instead of the actual gas itself. It’s particularly disgusting to read how much people in places like California, which currently has the biggest budget crisis of all, have to pay in gasoline taxes.

People in California currently pay around 66 cents PER GALLON in taxes. That means that most of their dollar per gallon is going toward the taxes and not that actual gasoline they are putting in their car.

And people rip on the oil companies, when really they should be blaming the state they live in for the ridiculously high taxes they are paying.

I was talking about how much I love my Giant Eagle fuel perks points that I get when I buy groceries at their store. There are also some excellent gas reward credit cards that can give you some serious incentives for filling up your tank at the pump, and less guilt about doing so and spending fifty bucks a pop or more, since you are getting some sort of return on your money.

While California pays sixty six cents per gallon in taxes on their gas, there are many other states that pay less. But they are still quite expensive. This all adds into the total overall price that you pay at the pump, and many times accounts for the major differences in state’s gas prices.

But also at work are the expenses that it takes to transport the gasoline to certain areas. For instance, an island location, or a remote location which does not have it’s own gas and refineries, will be much more expensive to buy gasoline because it costs so much more to get it there.

I remember going to a few exotic locations, and thinking how outrageous their gas prices were. When you have a hard to get to location, combined with high gas taxes, then you can just about forget it, you’re going to be paying about $5 a gallon just to get around in your car.